Aardman, Dreamworks Part Ways
VARIETY: Aardman, DWA end partnershipMove comes after failures of 'Rabbit,' 'Flushed' By BEN FRITZ Posted: Tue., Jan. 30, 2007, 7:04pm PT
After a critically lauded but commercially troubled six-year partnership with DreamWorks Animation, Aardman is back on its own.
The British claymation giant, best known for its signature Wallace and Gromit characters and 2000 hit "Chicken Run," officially terminated its five-picture deal with DreamWorks on Tuesday.
Move was widely expected after the financial failures of "Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit" and "Flushed Away" (Daily Variety, Nov. 13). The former was a claymation pic made by Aardman and distribbed by DWA, the latter a CGI collaboration between the two companies.
Aardman is back in development on several films inhouse. Having long established its claymation prowess, company's in the midst of building up CGI capabilities, meaning it could potentially produce pics in both formats.
How it will finance those movies, and how they will reach the market, is now an open question. A rep would say only that Aardman execs are looking at several different options.
Possibilities include slate financing from private equity money, a one-off deal with a studio for its next pic or a new multifilm deal.
Only project Aardman has in production is CBS claymation series "Creature Comforts." Eye net ordered seven episodes last year and hasn't yet skedded the show, though it was announced as a midseason replacement for 2006-07. It could still air in the spring or get pushed back to the summer or fall.
Skein could be another test of whether U.S. auds have cooled on Aardman's claymation style and quirky British humor, which stands in sharp contrast to the fast-paced, jokey CG toons of DreamWorks and most other American animation studios.
If it fails, U.S. studios may find it tough to justify picking up the next Aardman project, even though its work is widely lauded by critics and industryites.
"Chicken Run" grossed a solid $106.8 million in 2000, but 2005's "Wallace & Gromit" made only $56.1 million Stateside, while last fall's "Flushed Away," which cost well over $100 million to make, grossed only $63.4 million. ("Gromit" did better overseas, but "Flushed" was a worldwide disappointment.)
DreamWorks Animation had to take writedowns due to the weak performance of the two recent pics.
Likelihood that the companies would sever relations became clear in recent months. There was the "Flushed" flop -- and DreamWorks announced its slate through 2009 without any pics from its British partner. All its upcoming movies are in the hip, sarcastic vein of toon studio's franchises "Madagascar" and "Shrek," sequels of which are in the works.
"The business model of DreamWorks no longer suits Aardman and vice versa," Aardman spokesman Arthur Sheriff said. "But the split couldn't have been more amicable."
Companies had one pic in development, "Crood Awakening," which was announced at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and penned by John Cleese. Rights to the project revert to DreamWorks, though it's unlikely to see the light of day.
Aardman was founded by Peter Lord and David Sproxton in 1976. They were later joined by Nick Park, who won Oscars for three of his animated shorts and the "Wallace & Gromit" feature.
Labels: aardman, animation, business, dreamworks, film industry, variety
posted by Jeff Pidgeon at
8:23 AM
7 Comments:
Well, that's Dreamworks' loss - I'd take an Aardman project over anything of theirs any day of the week...
I hope Cleese finds some way to actually make "Crood Awakening" - that sounded like a ton of fun...
Variety should know that Aardman prefers 'plasticine animation' to 'claymation' in regard to its signature stop-motion technique. Didn't Will Vinton actually copyright the term 'claymation' at some point?
It makes sense to me. Dreamworks and Aardman are so different from one another in terms of sensibilities, they never seemed compatible.
Dreamworks and Aardman are so different from one another in terms of sensibilities
Yes, but that was the point. JK deliberately went after and wooed Aardman because it IS such a different company and sensibility, so very unique. In the first place, he loved and admired both Wallace & Gromit and Creature Comforts, which is what motivated the deals to start with. He really digs their stuff.
I'm not quite sure if any other American company would have made a deal for a big budget collaboration with such an idiosyncratic company with not too much identity in the US(and the inherent risk it carries in this market, no matter how good the film is, alas), but Jeffrey did--because he believes in what Aardman does.
He gave the Aardman people final say over their films because he wanted to allow them their vision-and he put the company's money where his faith was. This sounds like a press release, but it's the truth.
It's unfortunate that it didn't work out ultimately to be a longer-term deal, but I doubt very much that DW regrets in any way the Oscar W&G won, or the great films they made together. I don't ask that anyone lurve DW to death but it gets wearisome when any credit is never given--where it is, in point of fact, due.
It's true that I can't say how much Mr. Katzenberg likes Aardman's work, or how committed he was to supporting their vision. All I can do is look at the films, and maybe that's misleading.
Were-Rabbit was (to my knowledge) made primarily in England on a low budget. I think it turned out great - it was one of my favorite animated features to come out in a while.
Flushed Away (as I understand it) was made locally for more money. For me, it wasn't as strong a movie.
Now maybe that comes down to chance, or the fact that Wallace & Gromit is still the concept that Aardman is the most comfortable/adept with (Chicken Run was made by Nick Park & Peter Lord, two of their strongest directors, but I don't think it was as strong as Were-Rabbit). Maybe Nick Park and Steve Box's absence as directors was the main reason.
Still, you have to admit it's a tempting equation to make, seeing things from the outside - the further away from Dreamworks the Aardman project is, the better it seems to turn out.
Two words:
Nick Park.
If Flushed isn't as strong a film, it isn't as simple as "Dreamworks was more involved". I understand that you can only go by the evidence as you have it-that's cool. : )
But keep in mind that some of the small
story crew for W&G and Chicken Run was from DW, lent to Aardman, and they deserve some credit-credit they almost never get as the DW/Aardman discussion is usually
framed as DW=bad, Aardman=good.
You know, if you had come up with an inventive story idea and no one would believe that it could possibly be yours
but that all the good stuff was all someone else's, it'd be a bit of a pain.
ETA: the story artist that won the Annie last year for his Wallace & Grommit" work was not an Aardman employee but a DW employee. I doubt the voters knew that. Not that it mattered-it's all about the end result.
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